In the world of surface finishing, imitation is certainly not the best form of flattery. And when you have state environmental officials working to imitate what was done to finishers in California, then you can see real trouble brewing on the horizon.
Word came at the start of 2026 that the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission would adopt language from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to finish restrictions, dubbed the Airborne Toxic Control Measure for Chromium Electroplating and Chromic Acid Anodizing Operations.
If you recall, in 2024, CARB imposed strict new rules on finishers that will effectively force the closure of many chromium-using metal-finishing operations.
Colorado environmental officials who say they want to improve the air quality for its residents are taking the lazy way out and simply adopting language that CARB used, even though much of the data that the California agency was using to impose these restrictions was flawed or was at the extreme level of what a plating shop operates on, thereby making it even more egregious.
“It’s rather obvious that the oil and energy industry has clout while the small plating shops don’t and are merely the low-hanging fruit.”
In summation, this should worry every finisher in the U.S., whether you are in Los Angeles, Denver, Tampa, Columbus, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, or anywhere in between. And why is that? Because this practice of simply copying and pasting these regulations in different states —albeit based on incorrect and unrealistic data — will surely grow as regulations find it just too damn easy not to do it, since it seems, “Heck, why not?”
“Colorado is meeting its legislative mandate to establish health benchmarks for priority air toxics,” says Michael Ogletree, Senior Director of State Air Quality Programs. “By using leading science and input from both communities and industry, the state has created public health benchmarks that could help guide future policy conversations while providing clarity today about exposure levels.”
Leading science? We question that, especially since the proposed rules Colorado is working on allow 10,000 pounds of hydrogen sulfide to be released annually, while allowing zero pounds of hex-chrome.
“It’s rather obvious that the oil and energy industry has clout while the small plating shops don’t and are merely the low-hanging fruit,” a veteran of the finishing industry told me.
The data California used to set its standards was at the end of what electroplaters use, at 120,000,000 amp-hours per year. That equates to running a single shift (2,000 hours per year) at 60,000 amps continuously. That just doesn’t happen in the finishing industry.
It makes you wonder how many other states want to garner an "Environmental Justice" victory without really trying to make sense of it, and simply copying the California language is good enough to move on.
“The California situation occurred because the state was looking for a way to get an Environmental Justice victory,” a California planner told me. “Data be damned.”
I am sure many in the finishing industry believed the California rules were unique to that state, because they tend to do odd things on the West Coast when it comes to environmental matters.
But the movement east has begun, it seems, as Colorado's lazy regulators are not willing to perform the due diligence to make sure what they are enacting makes solid scientific sense, which it does not.
It makes you wonder how many other states want to garner an "Environmental Justice" victory without really trying to make sense of it, and simply copying the California language is good enough to move on.
What states are next? What finishing businesses are next to see no future in such a heavily-regulated industry? And why didn't the industry stop what was happening in California in its tracks?
Tim Pennington is Editor-in-Chief of Finishing and Coating, and has covered the industry since 2010. He has traveled extensively throughout North America visiting shops and production facilities, and meeting those who work in the industry. Tim began his career in the newspaper industry, then wound itself between the sports field with the PGA Tour and marketing and communications firms, and finally back into the publishing world in the finishing and coating sector. If you want to reach Tim, just go 
